Lab-grown diamonds shake up industry in Metro Detroit, U.S.
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A lab-grown diamond ring. Photo: Courtesy of Wachler Estate Collection & Diamonds
Congrats on your engagement! But is that a "real" diamond?
Why it matters: Lab-grown diamonds have radically transformed the jewelry market over the last decade.
- Though they are just as real as mined ones, their surge in popularity is dividing jewelry lovers.
State of play: Cheaper lab-grown gems are making diamond jewelry more accessible across incomes.
- But naysayers have compared sporting lab-grown jewels to carrying a knockoff designer bag.
Context: Despite the savings, the amount being paid for diamonds is actually rising — and the stones are larger than ever.
- Two things are happening: Lab-grown diamonds are getting more popular as they get cheaper, while people are spending more on mined diamonds.
- But as prices drop and technology improves to produce lab diamonds, they don't keep their resale value like mined diamonds do.
What they're saying: David Wachler, a fourth-generation jeweler with Wachler Estate Collection & Diamonds in Birmingham, tells Axios it's great that money is now less of a deciding factor in whether a couple can get a beautiful diamond engagement ring.
- "It's not my business what someone wants to spend," he says. "It's my job to help them take (that) and make it beautiful for the one they love."
Follow the money: In 2020, the average lab-grown diamond was 1.2 carats and cost $3,887, Axios' Felix Salmon reports from industry data.
- By 2024, the average size had swelled 60% to 1.9 carats, while the average price had dropped by 30% to $2,657.
Zoom in: Wachler's average lab-grown diamond ring sale is around $4,000-$7,000 and natural ranges from $15,000-$100,000.
- On an average day, Wachler says he sees about four or five lab-diamond customers and three or four natural.
The bottom line: When Michael Simmons entered the business in the mid-1980s, the third-generation owner of Simmons & Clark Jewelers in downtown Detroit says, one carat was the "magic number."
- "Now, we're seeing three-carat in a mined diamond as more popular," Simmons tells Axios. "With lab, most people don't start at a carat, they're starting at two to three carats."